The present invention relates to a device for feeding packets of cigarettes to a cartoning machine.
In particular, the present invention relates to a device of the aforementioned type capable of feeding packets of cigarettes to a cartoning machine designed to form the packets into cartons each containing a given "n" number of packets.
Products in general are fed from the manufacturing machine to a grouping machine using devices which provide for transferring the products between the two machines, as well as for a product reintegrating function.
Patents DE-PS 33 19 390 and DE-OS 37 05 941 relate to transfer devices supplied at the input with a possibly discontinuous succession of products (in this case, cigarettes) featuring random gaps produced by a reject device, and which provide at the output for feeding a grouping machine with a succession of products featuring gaps respectively equal to said "n" number of products. According to the above patents, each gap is absorbed by the grouping machine performing a no-load cycle as of any point in the cycle, with the disadvantage of possibly having to reject two incomplete groups at the start and end of the no-load cycle.